Clegg calls for full paedophile investigation

Thursday 3 July 2014

NICK Clegg has said a public inquiry into allegations of historic paedophile activity in Westminster would be "no surrogate" for a full police investigation, amid growing calls for an investigation into any potential cover-up.

NICK Clegg has said a public inquiry into allegations of historic paedophile activity in Westminster would be \"no surrogate\" for a full police investigation, amid growing calls for an investigation into any potential cover-up.

Yesterday former home secretary Lord Brittan defended his handling of a 1980s dossier alleging paedophile activity in Westminster - after the government admitted it appeared to have been destroyed.

Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain today, the Deputy Prime Minister said: "When we're dealing with allegations of such a serious criminal nature, I don't think there's any surrogate, really, for allowing the police to get to the bottom of what happened."

Lord Brittan initially stated yesterday that he had asked officials to look into the issue, and did not "recall being contacted further about these matters by Home Office officials or by Mr Dickens (MP Geoffrey Dickens who prepared the dossier) or by anyone else".

But he said later: "The Home Office independent review is entirely consistent with the action I set out in my earlier statement.

"Whilst I could not recall what further action was taken 30 years ago, the information contained in this report shows that appropriate action and follow-up happened," he added.

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well and trust you then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules